Page 120 of Plug and Drain

Susie frowned and leant closer, allowing her nostrils to flare subtly as she took in the woman’s scent.

Her senses were heightened by stress, and she detected something strange about Molly’s scent. Something she had noticed subconsciously but her mind had overwritten.

She does not smell like a wolf.

It was a bizarre thought, but Susie was suddenly sure. Molly may have looked like a wolf, but Susie had never seen her morph—granted, female wolves were less inclined to do so—but it would have been the obvious thing to do to defend herself against the omegas during Orientation Week.

Molly also lacked other wolfish tendencies. She showed no interest in joining a pack, and she did not eat with gusto like most shifters did. Instead, she gave the cooks grief by hoarding food ingredients.

Arken called for silence, and the crowd stilled. He raised his voice and indicated to Oscar’s followers on the steps. “The remaining offenders will be expelled from Volmasque Academy, effective immediately, and conscripted as blood donors in the Capital. There, I hope they may atone for their crimes.”

The omegas were led away by guards. Susie’s attention was fixed on Arken as he began to descend the steps.

She wanted to go to him, to meet him halfway.

Arken halted midway down the steps and stopped, scooping up Oscar’s carcass and wrenching it upright as if making it stand.

Susie stopped dead in her tracks, her mind jarring to a halt as Arken bared his fangs. Suspicion flared, but she ignored it.

He’s just going to take the body away.

He’s just disposing of it.

He’s going to bury it, or…

She flinched as Arken sunk his teeth into Oscar’s neck.

Screams of alarm sounded, but Arken didn’t react. He drank from Oscar, from…from the deceased student. Publicly. Silently. Mercilessly.

Maybe it should have been a neutral thing, given that Oscar was dead. But it wasn’t. His death made the act so much more horrifying.

It was too much.

A wave of dizziness overwhelmed Susie. She sank down in a crouch. She felt clammy, and her body was shaking as she forced herself to gulp air. Bile crept up her throat, its tendrils wrapping around her windpipe to constrict her breathing.

“I…I didn’t expect he would do that,” she croaked lamely, glancing at Molly.

But the wolf—or whatever Molly was—had disappeared.

Where the fuck did she go now?

Susie decided she didn’t care right at this moment.

A male voice spoke behind her in a haughty tone. “Who were you talking to?”

Susie pivoted warily on her heels, craning her neck up from where she was crouched to see Nathaniel staring down at her.

“No one,” she said, rising quickly to her feet.

“It didn’t look like no one,” Nathaniel replied, watching her carefully. “Not on second glance, anyway.”

Susie resisted the urge to shrug before the Crown Prince. What was she supposed to say? Whatever she thought or felt about Molly’s strange behaviour, she was hardly going to discuss it with him. Vampires rarely took an interest in anything that did not lead to the subject’s detriment, and that was especially true for Henrikk’s son.

Whatever secret Molly was hiding would be a topic Susie solely discussed with her.

“I think we’re all just in shock,” she explained instead, trying to ease the vampire’s scrutiny.

Nathaniel made an unimpressed sound, and said a single word in a low, deep drawl. “Clearly.” He gestured around at the dispersing students, most of whom were circling the building, presumably to go back inside via one of the side entrances. “It seems the ones with any sense are leaving. Why don’t you do the same?”